Rumours have started once again of an ECW revival as a new WWE brand, coming to a cable system near you. With the new ECW DVD out (there was a great reason why WWE bought the rights to the name), fans and insiders have begun clamouring for the promotion to be re-launched with former guru Paul Heyman at the helm.

As an alumni of ECW and someone who loved going to work there every week, I feel myself getting caught up in the same excitement and hoping that it happens. As someone who cares about the ECW legacy and what it really meant, I find myself hoping that the company is not revived, and that fans' last memories will be of the real ECW as it existed in January of 2001, when the last pay-per-view was done in New York City.

ECW, whether Vince McMahon owned it or not, could never be revived in the same fashion because the entire industry has changed. Part of ECW's appeal was that it was something new (hard core and edgy wrestling) in comparison to what was going on in the two major companies in the early and mid-nineties. Sadly, most of the concepts that Heyman and the wrestlers came up with have been copied so much that they are now old hat in the industry.

As well, the wrestlers in the locker-room were a different breed. There was a loyalty to the company unlike anything I have witnessed in the industry.

Partly due to many being thought of as being too small, or not having the right look to work in the land of the giants, as well as several established great workers, like Shane Douglas and Raven, who had something to prove to themselves and the industry. This bred a fierce loyalty to Paul, who gave many of us our first big push and opportunity.

It was "us against them" in every sense. ECW workers worked harder, took more risks and were more creative. Couple that with Heyman's genius and cutting edge television and you had something that was truly different and had a true cult following. How you take that and make it a sub-brand of a parent company I have no idea.

At the end of the day, ECW cannot be revived as it once was, any more than the Monday Night Wars can be recreated, simply because the industry is so totally different. Here's hoping that ECW and our memories are left in peace.

WWE is apparently informally taking the stance that all wrestlers hired in the future need to be over 6-feet and 225 pounds to have a chance of succeeding. This is both remarkable and hardly surprising. First, WWE and specifically McMahon, have always had a preference for big giants who would turn heads in airports. Despite the fact that many of McMahon's best performers did not fit that bill, he has steadfastly (and especially when business is not hot) returned to the big guys. There are, of course, a myriad of reasons why this should never be adopted as a real policy, but let me lay it out in one sentence: Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle. No that is not just a list of the best workers in the company, it also happens to be a list of guys who would have a tough time making the current height and weight hurdle. They might never have been signed if this policy were held to. Of course, if they had, as in the case of Jericho, a guy who was already a known commodity, they would never consider the rule. But what about a guy who just develops over time? Even though Angle was an Olympic gold medalist, I doubt anyone ever dreamed he would develop the way he did. This is a rule that is at best subjective and at worst simplistic. Not great for morale either.